Isabel: Hello and welcome back to ED Going Digital.

In this series we are discussing everything digital marketing. 

As you may already know my name is Isabel and I am a content creator here at Englander Davis.

Each week I will be interviewing a different guest and giving you an insight into our world of digital marketing here at Englander Davis.

Today I have our very own General Manager Extraordinaire Sam joining us.

How would you describe your role at Englander Davis and can you give us a quick rundown of what you do?

Sam: Okay, so my role involves a lot across a lot of different areas. I oversee the team, from a technical perspective. A lot of the more technical detail orientated things that we do. I take a lead on and oversee anything from website builds to SEO to Ads and Social Media management ect.

I liaise with the clients including any problems or any special requirements. I am the one who assesses that and decides what needs to be done for them to achieve their goals. 

Isabel: What advice would you give to someone who isn’t as tech savvy as you and might not have the time or patience to learn?

Sam: If you don’t have the time or patience to learn by yourself then my recommendation and advice would be to absorb as much knowledge and information around you as you can. That means always listening to what the people around you are saying, when people give you tips, tricks or explanations maximise the time someone is spending explaining it to you. A lot of the time I will talk to team members and explain technical concepts or the way something works and if I’m doing that for someone and they don’t have the time or interest and they don’t have the time or patience to learn it outside of work then I would expect that they maximise time that I’m spending explaining it to them. They will be able to build their knowledge that way. I have done this personally as well as learning stuff separately.

Isabel: And what about a business owner that might not have the time.

Sam: For a business owner, if they don’t have the time then they can come to someone like us who are experts and can do those sorts of things for them. In terms of the implementation of digital marketing, as they don’t need to know all the technical stuff personally or the ins and outs of everything. It is however their job to find people that do know how to do digital marketing effectively.

Isabel: How important are the platforms business owners choose for their digital marketing?

Sam: I think it’s extremely important. The question we get asked a lot of the time is should I do Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn, what is best for me? That depends really on the type of business you have. If you are a business that deals with a lot of other businesses Facebook and Instagram would be less preferential to LinkedIn where it is very B2B oriented. 

If it is a business where you have a very visual type of product then Instagram is probably the place to be. If you are interacting with customers then Facebook is ideal for that as well.

The first step that we take when approaching what type of advertising platform to use is, is your business needs based or is it want based?  If it is want based e.g wanting a t-shirt. Compared to a need based e.g My toilet is leaking I need to find someone to fix it. Google Ads is suited for need based whereas Facebook is suited for want based.

Isabel: Do you personally prefer Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) or Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising and why?

Sam: I have an SEO background. I see the pros and cons of each. SEO is more of a slow burn and a lot of business owners aren’t very patient with that. They know they want to get to the top of Google but they don’t have the patience or understanding to be able to see the bigger picture. They want results now and rightly so. A lot of companies can’t always afford to be paying ongoing for something and not see results upfront. That is where Google Ads PPC is more beneficial. I think the best strategy is probably a two pronged approach of SEO to build your brand and PPC to get results. It is hard to pick one exactly.

Isabel: So you would probably say using them together?

Sam: I would recommend using them together. If I had to pick one it would really depend on the circumstances. I am a big fan of branding, as it helps you in the long term so I would have to pick SEO because it is such a deep field and there’s so many benefits that you can get from just that.

Isabel: What is something you have learnt here in regards to digital marketing that stands out to you the most?

Sam: The thing that stands out to me the most is analysing people’s behaviour. In SEO for example I say this all the time when I talk to people in the office. A good thing to think about is intent. As in what is someone intending to do when they take an action. SEO is a perfect example when choosing keywords for a business. The example that I always use is plumber vs. plumbing. If someone searches for plumber then they’re probably looking for someone to fix their taps because they have a problem whereas if they search for plumbing they may be just researching or learning about it in general. It doesn’t have as much urgency or intent behind it. Learning that a long time ago is the biggest thing that sticks out to me and it just makes so much sense. A lot of decisions that I make reflects this. 

Isabel: Do you think all businesses will utilise some sort of digital marketing in the future?

Sam: I think that it is inevitable. The world is already well into the digital age and it is really only the last holdouts before the internet or when the internet was first getting started that haven’t adopted it. I think that in one way or another every business has an online presence. Even if a business doesn’t have a website or Social Media ABN’s are online now. You can search for any business name online.

Isabel: So there is some sort of element that is online even if you aren’t online yourself.

Sam: Even if your business isn’t online and it’s managed by you it is still somewhere online. An important part of digital marketing and the way that everything is heading in the future is to take control of your online presence and not just leave it to people searching your business and find your ABN registry. So that when people search for your business they come across a brand presence online.

Isabel: What is an up and coming tech trend you think we will see more of in 2021?

Sam: I was thinking about this for a while and think that there’s a few. One of the things that I’ve heard recently is that a lot of smaller businesses are focusing a lot more on branding in addition to getting leads and results. They are building their longevity and their branding for the future. That is something that Covid in particular has weeded out, a lot of the businesses that were struggling, not doing as well and couldn’t survive. What is left is businesses that have a solid business plan and business structure who are successful but may be lacking a consistent and cohesive brand. They’ve got the business side down but maybe not so much the branding. 

Isabel: Do you think they have been inspired more by bigger businesses to do that?

Sam: Yes, I definitely think so. Marketing is all about branding in one way or another. That is the basis of it. Just from the trustworthiness perspective if you have consistent clean branding it instantly gives you credibility. That will bring you business on it’s own. If you look more legitimate than the next business then nine times out of 10 customers will trust you more than the business who doesn’t have consistent branding. Eg. pixelated logos brings the quality of a brand down.

Isabel: We see that a lot with oncoming clients with their websites and their brand presence online.

Sam: A lot of the time the first thing that I will notice is something as simple as a logo is one colour and everything on their website is another colour. For example a red and blue logo but the website is all black and it looks like the logo is just slapped on there and it doesn’t look modern. 

A lot of start up businesses don’t pay attention to detail in how they create the brand itself. For example a design business where someone has started it up in their free time and it has built up into something and they still have a generic logo. This doesn’t represent their brand identity. Watercolour paint splash logos with a letter are a dime a dozen and it doesn’t give anyone a sense of the brand itself. If you compared them you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.

Isabel: With digital marketing everything is so interconnected that all of the elements work together to generate leads and build your brand awareness. Amazing, I know you are very busy so thank you very much for your time today. It was great to hear your insider knowledge.
Sam: No problem, thank you!